Tales of 2 North Koreas: Pyongyang and outside Pyongyang
Geostrategy-Direct Stores stocked with a variety of goods, including luxury items, are easy to find for the well-off in Pyongyang who are flush with foreign cash. Outside of North (more…)
Pressure rising: China tightens borders; Pyongyang extends fraternal hand to Seoul
Geostrategy-Direct The South Korean government reported on Jan. 5 that the year 2017 witnessed the lowest number of North Korean defectors reaching South Korea. The report cited China’s massive (more…)
Fueling Pyongyang on the high seas: Chinese, Russian-flagged tankers turned off transponders
Geostrategy-Direct Chinese and Russian-flagged tankers have reportedly transferred oil to North Korean vessels at sea in violation of UN Security Council sanctions. The oil tankers are believed to have (more…)
Disappearance of top North Korean tied to power struggle under Kim Jong-Un
Geostrategy-Direct Two top leaders who sat at the same table when Kim Jong-Un ordered North Korea’s latest nuclear test ended up going in different directions in the regime’s hierarchy, (more…)
Soap operas telegraph evolving priorities: From military-first to party-first
Geostrategy-Direct The world turns quite differently in the hereditary dictatorship that is North Korea. The contrasting styles of the last two generations of the Kim dynasty is reflected in (more…)
Debris from past North Korean missile launches have provided rich intelligence
Geostrategy-Direct U.S. and Japanese vessels continue to comb the seas near northwestern Japan in search of debris from North Korea’s Nov. 29 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). (more…)
Coup anxiety? Kim Jong-Un appoints new security chief
Geostrategy-Direct Kim Jong-Un, who unlike his father and predecessor Kim Jong-Il does not trust his own generals, has appointed a new state security chief in what analysts say is (more…)
How to counter North’s outsized, asymmetric military in a Korean War II
Geostrategy-Direct The following, by Geostrategy-Direct contributing editor Miles Maochun Yu, was published in ‘Strategika’ by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. While the world is abuzz about North Korea’s (more…)
Soldier’s desperate sprint to freedom provides reality check on both sides of DMZ
Geostrategy-Direct By Donald Kirk SEOUL — The mad dash of a North Korean soldier across the North-South line in the truce village of Panmunjom exposes the weakness of both (more…)